Fantastic: Watch This First!

Welcome again (or not) to Stellafera Reviews Littlest Pet Shop, where one of the less well beloved shows on the Hub gets its chance to shine in the spotlight! Today we review Gailbreak, which is a great episode that serves as a much better introduction to the show and most of the characters than the premiere did. Took till episode 4 for a good one? Some waited longer for MLP to start getting good in their eyes. Let's go!

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The episode starts off simply, with Blythe just walking Zoe down the sidewalk. Zoe reveals to the audience that she has a sister named Gail, and is excited about getting to introduce her to Blythe later in the day. La de da, polite chatter, until Zoe notices Gail trapped inside Largest Ever Pet Shop daycare, looking very depressed. Dun dun dun!

After the theme song, the opening credits reveal the writer of this episode; Mitch Larson! And trust me, you should not be worried at all by the fact that he now works on this show and has less time with MLP. It's absolutely deserving of his talents.

Zoe confirms that it's Gail from that fabulous collar, and the two notice something else; THEY HAVE A FREAKING ROBOT SECURITY SYSTEM. Not just cameras or anything. I'm talking a mobile, vaguely humanoid robot that talks. Why? Why is that necessary? Couldn't such a discovery be used for something more important? No matter, Blythe tries to go into the store and inform them of what is clearly an obvious mix up. Suddenly, the Biskits.

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asdasdasdsdaasdadadlll"So we like, heard that Stellafera missed us and stuff."

Apparently the Biskits control the robot, named Monban, and the store. Great job, parents. Great job. They are, as always, a hoot in this scene, and Whitney in particular gets some clever lines. In order to demonstrate what their robot can do, they decide to have Monban ban Blythe from the store for two weeks. Might as well be two months, or even two years for poor, lonely Gail.

Or for Zoe. She returns to the pet shop, completely devastated and heartbroken. She insists that nothing will cheer her up, until...

Zoe's spirits now lifted, they need to figure out how they are going to rescue Gail and be back in time for their owners to pick them up. Actually, no, because during this sequence, apparently Russell was busy being a supergenius and already formulated a complex plan. We get another alternate art style sequence where he details it. *takes deep breath* In order to get past the lasers (???), Pepper has to illuminate them with her skunk spray, then Vinnie has to sneak between them and turn them off, then Penny Ling goes in with her ribbons and disables Monban by wrapping him in ribbons, then Sunil has to hypnotize the Biskits so they don't do anything, then Minka has to lockpick the door to the daycamp center, then Zoe has to shatter the plexiglass crates with her singing voice, then they have to get Gail, then Blythe has to call them all back via headsets, and finally they all meet at the rally point. Sunil points out the convoluted nature of this whole operation. Russell's response? "Piece of cake." Sunil's supposed to be the one with the magical abilities, but Russell doesn't seem to be half bad at jinxes.

They arrive at the rally point in pretty nifty black turtlenecks and hats... and one pair of girly pink headphones. Eh, things couldn't go perfectly according to plan. I'll take a little diversion for a moment here. This episode is a bit odd among the LPS episodes in that there is no separation between the "Blythe story" and the "Pet Story". In this case, it helps keep a tighter focus. Also, you might be wondering why I recommend this episode so much as an introductory one. One of the reasons why is because the execution of each part of the plan shows off each pet.

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asdasdasdsdaasdallMy reaction when I overprepare for the final level in video games.

Pepper and Vinnie go in first, only to find that the laser security system is only on when the store is closed. Very reasonable, of course, since that would be distracting and threatening to the customers. Instead we have this big, scary, monotone robot going around-wait. Anyways, Pepper runs outside and informs Russell of this fact. She runs back in to get Vinnie, but Monban catches them, and recites his catchphrase ("No pets allowed outside designated area.") and tosses them into the cages. Now they have to save Gail and two of the main characters. Pepper shows off a bit of her sense of humor and brashness, while Vinnie shows off his dancing and his somewhat stupid nature.

This isn't too much of a setback for their plans, though, because Pepper and Vinnie were only needed for something they didn't end up having to do. Russell goes through the plan again, and then Minka pulls a Leeroy Jenkins on them and rushes in. The Biskits spot her through the security camera, and after mentally asking themselves what the flying feather just happened, they tell Monban to capture the monkey in aisle 8. No wait, aisle 7, no wait, aisle 9, no wait, aisle 10? Aisle 11? Minka is eventually cornered when she runs to the daycamp center and is caged up. This basically sums her up except for being an artist, yeah.

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asdasdasdsdaasdalladddYou can't stop an avalanche as it races down the hill...

Russell comes up with a Plan C now. If Penny Ling just reverses the polarity of the neutron flow cash register, that should send a signal at the right frequency to shut off Monban and I didn't pay attention to the rest because I'm too busy being amazed that they made a Doctor Who reference. Blythe says she has something simpler in mind. She walks in and distracts Monban while Zoe sneaks by. Monban runs down the hall while shouting "Stop! Resistance is futile useless!". Q and Star Wars ending in The Return Of Harmony and this? Something tells me that Mitch Larson is a science fiction fan. Zoe gets there and nearly busts them out... but her favorite song comes on again, and she can't resist the music. Chekhov's Gun No. 1, checked off. The Biskits find Blythe, who receives a double ban from the Largest Ever Pet Shop.

Monban's battery runs low, and while he's charging up, Penny Ling goes in with her ribbons. She gets tangled up with them and some boxes, but she figures that Monban is off, and therefore there's nothing to worry about. Her reduced speed proves to be her downfall, and Monban finishes charging just in time to stop her from letting the pets go. Well shit. Now we are down to Blythe, Russell, and Sunil.

Russell's Plan L looks to be about 20 pages long. Unfortunately, it requires Penny Ling, and the frustrated Russell convinces me of his best character status when he bemoans that he should have listened to the voices in his head and gone with Plan K. Blythe is inspired by the phrase "voices in my head", since Monban is controlled by the voices of Whitney and Britney. She forms a much simpler plan, but it'll all be up to Sunil, because Blythe has been double banned and Russell would curl up into a ball (it's a hedgehog thing). Sunil will come in with the headphones (Chekhov's Gun No. 2) and hypnotize the Biskits, then put the headphones on Monban, who will recieve voice commands from Blythe through her walkie talkie to let all the pets out. It's a flawless plan except for the fact that Sunil is a terrified coward with no belief in himself and can't summon the guts to pull it off at all.

It seems like there's nothing they can do, but Russell knows one thing that will bring out Sunil's TOTAL BADASSERY. Sunil is a mongoose, remember? And what are mongooses known for?

I wasn't a big fan of Dragonshy, but I imagine this is what the fans of that episode saw when Fluttershy stood up to the dragon. I promised that I would explain why everybody loves Sunil so much, and this is why. His transformation from coward to warrior is just awesome, and the amazing backing music doesn't hurt matters. He murders the pet toys and food and then just tops it off by hypnotizing the Biskits in a flash and throwing the headphones on Monban like a boss.

The rest of the plan works like a charm, the pets all make it out, yada yada yada. It turns out that "Gail" was actually a male dog with a sparkly collar and this was all completely pointless. The real Gail, who sounds suspiciously like Rarity, was waiting for Zoe all afternoon at the Littlest Pet Shop. Dance party!

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asdasdasdsdaasdalladddasfsfsfsfsfsfdaafsffaasShipping!

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asdasdasdsdaasdalladddasfsfsfsfsfsfdadShipping everywhere!

So, overall? This was a very fun episode, on par with the great adventure episodes of My Little Pony. It did a good job of giving each pet a chance to shine, especially Zoe, Russell, and Sunil, and let some of the human characters shine too. While the Littlest Pet Shop fandom isn't big, it's pretty much united in its approval here. Definitely worth a look if you are curious about the series.